My poor Camry is in trouble. (It’s a '99 with about 180K on it.) I completely forgot that I needed to get the timing belt replaced again - it seems liked just yesterday I did it the first time. But it broke on me, and this apparently caused a lot of damage. The estimate is around $2,800.
Is it worth for me to get this fixed? There’s also a bit of oil leakage and some cosmetic damage, but other than that it’s a good car. Based on scanning Craigslist, it seems like this would be slightly cheaper than buying another used car in similar condition.
But, I don’t exactly have $2,800 sitting around. The repair shop offered me some financing, but it’s not a very good deal. $1,000 down, then 200 a week. Plus a 10% charge for a loan that would be paid off in ten weeks. I could make the down payment, but 200 a week would be tough.
Could I get a bank loan for a car repair? I know credit is tight these days. I don’t have any negative marks on my credit report, but I am already using most of my available balance on my two credit cards.
If I were to just scrap the Camry and find a used car somewhere, I would probably be able to get some sort of financing, but I don’t know if I’d able to get anything decent. I know the used car dealers have some high-interest loans that they make lots of money on, but would I be able to get anything better?
Anyway, I have no idea what to do here, or how any of this stuff works. I’ve never been in a situation like this before and it’s stressful. I can’t work until I get a car, so I’m really in a tight spot. All advice will be very much appreciated.
Go in and talk to your bank. They should be able to tell you their interest rate on new and used car loans. The used car loan won’t be as good, but it shouldn’t be as bad as a used car lot either.
If I could at all avoid it, there’s no way I would spend $2,800 to fix a '99 Camery with 180K on it. KBB.com shows it to be worth exactly that much (in Fair condition).
I second SmellMyWort (I never thought I’d type that in my entire life) about going to your local bank or credit union if you can.
Generally speaking, repairing an interference engine (valves extend into the combustion chamber) isn’t worth it when you have a failure like yours, basically what happened is your timing belt broke and the pistons on the up-stroke smashed into the open valves, bending them, and causing severe damage to the valve stems and other top-end hardware.
the two best reccomendations (as seen upthread) would be to either put a junkyard engine block in it, or get a replacement car, personally, I’d look into the price of a junkyard engine before I’d get into a new car…
If you do look into a new car, try to find out if the engine uses a timing belt (like your Camry) or a timing CHAIN (my Saturn Ion has a 2.2L Ecotec engine with a timing chain, the chances of a timing chain breaking are very small, almost no chance of it breaking, and it generally lasts the life of the engine.
Yeah, one cool thing about my Tacoma is that the 5VZ-FE is a noninterference engine. I intend to replace the belt at a reasonable mileage of course, but it’s nice to know I don’t have to worry about it.
Not true in the least! Timing chains certainly break, but they may give you more warning, as the guide may go first and you’ll hear a CLACK CLACK CLACK that means pull over and call AAA.
I would agree that fixing your car (to the tune of $2800) is not worth it. You can buy a used car with much lower mileage for the same money, and a car with 280K miles is just about used up.
I would look at some high mileage newer used cars; probably you can pick up a used Kia or Hyundai with around 100K miles, for about $2000.
Funny you should say that right now, because I have to replace that very same engine for that very reason. I would suggest that you have it replaced according to the schedule GM sets up lest you end up having to pay out the nose for a new motor.
Camrys and Accords (and Civics and a lot of other Japanese cars) have what are called “Interference” engines. When the timing belts go, the engine is totaled. Sucks that it happened to you, The timing belt and the water pump are pretty much the only thing you need to maintain on these cars to get 100’s of thousands if miles out of them.
I’ve got a 1994 Accord, 172,000 miles and I’ve done the timing belt thing twice already, according to schedule. Replaced the water pump at the same time. I’ve got an expense checklist set up in Excel so I can see what bills and such are coming up when and have the mileage when the belt was changed and when the next one is due on it so I don’t miss and I can plan for the expense. I expect to be hanging on to the Accord; it’s been a gem.
